ITV

Category: Social Media

  • Tik Tok appoints Shouzi Chew as CEO

    Tik Tok appoints Shouzi Chew as CEO

    New Delhi: Chinese short-video sharing platform TikTok has tapped Shouzi Chew as the company’s new chief executive officer.

    TikTok’s interim head Vanessa Pappas, based in Los Angeles, will be the new chief operating officer.

    Chew is based in Singapore and was named chief financial officer of TikTok parent company ByteDance in March this year, and will continue in that role, the company said.

    The decision was taken after TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer quit the company in August 2020 amid India’s decision to ban the app.

    Chew has served as Xiaomi’s chief financial officer from 2015 to 2020, and ran its international business for a year, and took the company in one of the largest ever Chinese tech listings on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

    “The leadership team of Shou and Vanessa sets the stage for sustained growth,” said ByteDance CEO Yiming Zhang. “Shou brings deep knowledge of the industry, having led a team that was among our earliest investors and having worked in the technology sector for a decade.”

    TikTok became the most downloaded non-gaming app worldwide, with more than 58 million installs in March. Over 11 per cent of these installs were from China followed by the US at 10 per cent. The second most popular app was Facebook, with more than 56 million installs in March, according to data shared by app analytics firm Sensor Tower.

  • Facebook to launch vaccine finder tool on its mobile app

    Facebook to launch vaccine finder tool on its mobile app

    New Delhi: Social media platform Facebook said it is partnering with the government to roll out a vaccine finder tool on its mobile app this week to help people identify nearby places to get inoculated. The announcement comes at a time when the country has begun the vaccination process for all citizens above 18 years.

    Earlier this week, the social media giant had announced a $10 million grant for emergency response efforts for the Covid2019 situation in India, which is grappling with a deadly second wave of Covid2019. “We are committed to doing our best to help the local communities in the country with medical supplies and other life-saving equipment,” it said in a public post on Friday.

    The tool will provide information in as many as 17 languages. The details of the vaccine center locations and their hours of operation have been provided by the ministry of health and family welfare (MoHFW).

    According to the government data, over 2.45 crore people have already registered on the Co-WIN app ahead of Phase-3 of the Covid2019 vaccination.

    In a post, Facebook said its tool will also show walk-in options for those aged above 45 years and a link to register on the Co-Win website and schedule vaccination appointments.

    “We are also partnering with organizations such as United Way, Swasth, Hemkunt Foundation, I Am Gurgaon, Project Mumbai, and US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF) to deploy the funds announced to help augment critical medical supplies with over 5,000 oxygen concentrators and other life-saving equipment like ventilators, BiPAP machines and to increase hospital bed capacity,” it stated.

    The platform said it is also providing health resources to people from UNICEF India about when to seek emergency care and how to manage mild symptoms at home. The information is accessible and prominent on Facebook’s COVID-19 Information Center and in Feed. It is also promoting this information on Instagram.

    Social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter have emerged as a lifeline, connecting those looking for oxygen cylinders, hospital beds, plasma donors, and ventilators with possible donors. Twitter too has set up a COVID-19 SOS page that helps surface information from those offering or seeking immediate help during this crisis.

    India is reeling under one of the most severe waves of Covid2019. The country reported a record 4 lakh new positive cases in the last 24 hours, its sharpest spike since the pandemic first gripped the country last year. 

  • Twitter’s monetisable daily active users grow 20% to 199 mn

    Twitter’s monetisable daily active users grow 20% to 199 mn

    KOLKATA: Microblogging site Twitter reported $1.04 billion revenue for the first quarter of 2021, up 28 per cent year-on-year. It also posted a profit of $68 million, turning back its business from $8.4 million in losses a year ago.

    Advertising revenue totaled $899 million, an increase of 32 per cent and total ad engagements increased 11 per cent year-over-year.

    “Q1 was a solid start to 2021, with total revenue of $1.04 billion up 28 per cent year-over-year, reflecting accelerating year-over-year growth in MAP (mobile application promotion) revenue and brand advertising that improved throughout the quarter,” Twitter CFO Ned Segal said.

    Despite its so-called “solid” performance, Twitter’s stock price dropped nine per cent after reporting Q1 earnings that only narrowly exceeded Wall Street estimates. Analysts had forecast the company would add eight million users during the quarter to surpass 200 million global users overall, as opposed to the one million daily users reported by the social platform.

    “Advertisers continue to benefit from updated ad formats, improved measurement, and new brand safety controls, contributing to 32 per cent year-over-year growth in ad revenue in Q1,” he added.

    The social media network’s monetisable daily active users (mDAU) grew about 20 per cent to 199 million, falling slightly below the analysts’ expectation of 200 million. Average US mDAU were 38 million for Q1, compared to 33 million in the same period of the previous year, and also bettering the count of 37 million in the previous quarter. On the other hand, international mDAU were 162 million for Q1, compared to 133 million in the same period of the previous year and against 155 million in the previous quarter.

    The company has guided total revenue to be between $980 million and $1.08 billion for Q2.

    “People turn to Twitter to see and talk about what’s happening, and we are helping them find their interests more quickly while making it easier to follow and participate in conversations,” Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said.

    “Average monetisable DAU reached 199 million, up 20 per cent year over year and up seven million sequentially, driven by ongoing product improvements and global conversation around current events,” he noted.

    This quarter also marked Twitter’s first period mostly without the presence of former US president Donald Trump after he was banned from the service following the 6 January insurrection at the US Capitol in Washington DC. Speculations are rife in the industry corridors that Trump plans on starting his own social media site to go head to head with the likes of Twitter and Facebook.

  • Facebook now has 2.85 billion MAUs, income skyrockets 94%

    Facebook now has 2.85 billion MAUs, income skyrockets 94%

    New Delhi: Facebook on Thursday reported stronger than expected financial results for the first quarter with soaring ad revenue during the pandemic. The social media giant said it earned $9.5 billion in the January-March quarter, a pole vault of 94 per cent from $4.9 billion last year. The total revenue grew 48 per cent from $17.44 billion to $26.17 billion in the previous fiscal, backed by a surge in digital ad spending during the pandemic when consumers mostly shopped online.

    The main driver of this growth was Facebook’s advertising business.

    “We are pleased with the strength of our advertising revenue growth in the first quarter of 2021, which was driven by a 30 per cent year-over-year increase in the average price per ad and a 12 per cent increase in the number of ads delivered. We expect that advertising revenue growth will continue to be primarily driven by price during the rest of 2021,” said Facebook CFO David Wehner as the company reported first quarter results.

    Wehner added that the company expects its year-over-year revenue growth rate for the period “to remain stable or modestly accelerate relative to the growth rate in the first quarter of 2021 as we lap slower growth related to the pandemic during the second quarter of 2020.”

    Facebook now has 2.85 billion monthly active users (MAUs), an increase of 10 per cent year-on-year. Concurrently, its daily active user base has reached 1.88 billion on average, an increase of eight per cent. The company currently employs 60,654 people, bolstering its workforce by 26 per cent year-over-year.

    Looking ahead, the world’s largest social network will focus on expanding its e-commerce offerings to strengthen its ad business. “We will continue to invest aggressively to deliver new and meaningful experiences for years to come, including in newer areas like augmented and virtual reality, commerce, and the creator economy,” said Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg in a statement.

  • Now you can listen to Spotify music, podcasts in Facebook app

    Now you can listen to Spotify music, podcasts in Facebook app

    NEW DELHI: Audio streaming service Spotify has teamed up with Facebook to make users listen to music and podcasts directly on the social networking app. The new feature will be available on both the iOS and Android apps of Facebook. 

    Under this upgrade, paid subscribers of Spotify can access full playback of music and podcasts without advertisements without leaving the Facebook app.

    Facebook called the move a ”natural step” in its relationship with Spotify. In 2019, these companies had inked a deal that allowed short video clips from Spotify to be posted on Facebook stories. 

    Last week, Facebook had revealed that the company is planning to launch several audio products, including Clubhouse-style live audio rooms and a new offering to play podcasts.

    Spotify, in a recent statement, announced that the new feature will be rolled out in 27 markets including the United States, Australia, and Canada. However, the feature to play podcasts on the Facebook app will not be available for users in India. 

    The Swedish audio streaming company assured that this feature will be rolled out in more markets in the coming months. 

  • Centre asks Twitter & other SNS to delete posts critical of India’s Covid response

    Centre asks Twitter & other SNS to delete posts critical of India’s Covid response

    NEW DELHI: Twitter and other social media platforms have removed about 100 posts and URLs after the Indian government asked them to remove content that was critical of its handling of the current Covid2019 crisis or spreading fake news around the pandemic.

    Twitter said it has notified the impacted account holders of its action taken in response to a legal request from the Centre, while Facebook did not comment on the issue. According to media reports, the microblogging site censored tweets from a member of parliament, an actor, a former journalist, and West Bengal’s minister of labour and law on the government’s behest. It wasn’t immediately known what the removed posts were.

    The action comes after the ministry of information and technology, on the recommendation of the ministry of home affairs, asked social media platforms to remove the posts and URLs to “prevent obstructions in the fight against the pandemic” and disruption of public order due to the said posts.

    They added that the order was issued in view of the misuse of social media platforms by certain users to spread fake or misleading information and create panic about the pandemic in the society “by using unrelated, old and out of the context images or visuals, communally sensitive posts and misinformation about Covid protocols”.      

    Twitter removed or restricted access to more than 50 posts in the past one month at the behest of the government, including tweets that criticised its handling of the pandemic. Other posts removed showed pictures and videos of a recent Maoist attack in Chhattisgarh.       

    A Twitter spokesperson said when it receives a valid legal request, it reviews it under both Twitter Rules and local law.

    “If the content violates Twitter’s Rules, the content will be removed from the service. If it is determined to be illegal in a particular jurisdiction, but not in violation of the Twitter Rules, we may withhold access to the content in India only. The legal requests that we receive are detailed in the biannual Twitter Transparency Report, and requests to withhold content are published on Lumen,” the spokesperson said.

    Earlier this year, more than 500 accounts were suspended and access to hundreds of others in India blocked after the government ordered the microblogging platform to restrain the spread of misinformation and inflammatory content related to farmers’ protests.

    India is currently dealing with one of the worst Covid2019 outbreaks globally. On Sunday, the number of new Covid infections touched 3,49,691 cases and 2,767 fatalities, according to the Union health ministry data. 

  • Facebook to start testing ads on Instagram Reels

    Facebook to start testing ads on Instagram Reels

    New Delhi: Social media giant Facebook Inc said on Thursday that it will begin testing advertisements on Instagram Reels in India as it aims to expand revenue from its short-form video feature. It will also launch this feature in a few other countries including Brazil, Germany, and Australia.

    The social media platform plans to cash in on the popularity of Instagram Reels in India — a fast-growing social media market. 

    “The introduction of ads is an indication of how strong the momentum is for Reels,” said Facebook vice president – global business group Carolyn Everson. “It is a big deal for marketers.”

    Facebook plans to test other features in India, such as letting content creators share Reels videos on their Facebook accounts, according to a report published by Reuters. As with other content on Reels, ads can be up to 30 seconds long and users can choose to skip the ads.

    The Mark Zuckerberg-owned tech behemoth also announced that it will let advertisers select categories of video content they want to place ads on, such as videos about children and parenting, animals and pets, or fitness and workouts. Advertisers typically use Facebook to target certain users by their interests.

    In addition to this, the social networking platform will begin testing sticker ads for Facebook Stories. Brands can create stickers that creators will place in their Stories, and influencers will earn a cut of any sales made through the sticker ads.

    According to government data, India has as many as 41 crore Facebook users and as many as 21 crore people who use Instagram.

  • Flick registers 42 mn+ views, 100 mn+ impression across social media

    Flick registers 42 mn+ views, 100 mn+ impression across social media

    KOLKATA: The Zoom Studios’ short-format content brand Flick has registered 42 million+ views and 100 million+ impression across The Zoom Studios YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. With powerful 40 individual stories, Flick has produced an exclusive suit of short format videos that captures a series of universal moments taken out of our lives and portrayed through a heart-warming narrative. It was launched during the lockdown last year.

    With a central theme on how individual moments from our lives, if placed in a timeline, is nothing short of a film, Flick stories reflect the essence of life and celebrate its little moments. Delivering relatable stories which are brought to life with strong narratives and power packed performances, Flick has featured a talented pool of artists including Priyank Sharma, Benafsha Soonawalla, Harleen Sethi, Namit Das, Karishma Sharma, Shruti Vyas, Aashim Gulati, Mahesh Thakur, Shreya Gupto, Barkha Singh, Archak Chhabra, Ritvik Sahore, Pankhuri Awasthy, Vaibhav Tatwawaadi and many more.

    Times Network COO and EVP Jagdish Mulchandani said: “With the pandemic induced lockdown last year, content consumption patterns and preferences evolved significantly. The Zoom Studios took a leap forward with Flick during this time, exploring short format entertainment, offering viewers a differentiated yet wholesome content that can be watched in one go. We are really excited and encouraged by the overwhelming response from our viewers and the strong brand resonance and preference that Flick has achieved in a short span. I am confident that Flick will continue to resonate with our viewers who are looking for short stories that are real and heart-warming.”

    Building a strong connect with young male and female viewers alike, Flick has not only gained a loyal millennial fanbase but also received appreciation and recognition from the industry. The Flick titled Tape, A Love Story was awarded with ‘Content Debut of the year’ title and Flick was declared ‘Top 25 content brands & enterprises’ at Inkspell’s Indian Content Leadership Awards 2020. The brand also won Gold at the (Drivers of Digital) DOD Awards 2021 in the category of Top 10 Digital Brands/Enterprises. 

    A robust integrated brand campaign #StoriesToTell has also been rolled out across print, digital, OOH and TV platforms. Popular brands like OkCupid, Unilever, Korea Tourism and Tru Hair have associated Flick.

  • Twitter APAC VP Maya Hari lands global role

    Twitter APAC VP Maya Hari lands global role

    NEW DELHI: Twitter Asia Pacific vice president & MD Maya Hari has been assigned a new global role as VP of global strategy and operations. She will continue to be based in Singapore, and will lead a global team.

    Hari’s commercial role will encompass product strategy, operations, innovation and automation to enable commercial and content partnerships efforts around the world. She has been leading Twitter's APAC business, excluding Japan and South Korea, for the past four years. Prior to this, she was managing director of southeast Asia and India and a senior director of product strategy and sales.

    "In my new role, I am excited to work with him and our other international leaders to grow our businesses around the world and find new opportunities for Twitter to serve the global public conversation,” she said in a statement to the press.

     

     

    Hari has been with Twitter for seven years. She previously spent more than 15 years in the digital media, mobile and ecommerce industries across the US and in Asia Pacific for brands such as Samsung, Google, Microsoft and Cisco.

    Twitter has also elevated Yu Sasamoto to head its unified regional structure that brings the microblogging site’s Japan, South Korea and Asia Pacific operations together. Sasamoto has been leading the social network's Japan and South Korea offices for the past seven years. He will take up leadership of the unified JAPAC region from 1 May, and is set to move to Twitter's APAC headquarters in Singapore. He will continue to serve as the general manager of Twitter Japan and head of Twitter Client Solutions in Japan until his successor is hired in Tokyo. The JAPAC region will cover Australia, greater China, Japan, India, New Zealand, southeast Asia and South Korea.

    Hari commented: "We are delighted that Yu-san will be stepping into this expanded role—it is a testament to everything he's achieved at Twitter to date, leading Japan to become among our largest revenue markets globally."

  • Delhi HC dismisses WhatsApp, Facebook pleas against CCI order

    Delhi HC dismisses WhatsApp, Facebook pleas against CCI order

    New Delhi: The Delhi high court on Thursday dismissed the plea filed by Facebook and WhatsApp challenging the Competition Commission of India (CCI) order directing a probe into its controversial new privacy policy. The court said it found no merits in the petition and refused to quash the CCI probe.

    The CCI had launched an investigation into WhatsApp’s updated privacy policy on 24 March, amid the raging debate over users’ data and privacy on social media platforms. The antitrust body had taken a prima facie view that the messaging app’s new terms of use are in contravention of India’s Competition Act. 

    WhatsApp and its parent company Facebook had challenged the CCI's order through two separate petitions, and the court had decided to reserve its judgement during a hearing on 13 April.

    According to CCI,  WhatsApp's new privacy policy would lead to excessive data collection and "stalking" of consumers for targeted advertising to bring in more users and is therefore an alleged abuse of dominant position. On the other hand, the two social media platforms had contended that when the top court and the Delhi high court were looking into the privacy policy, then CCI ought not to have intervened in the issue. They also argued that the CCI's decision was an abuse of the commission's suo motu jurisdiction. WhatsApp also told the court that private conversations continued to be protected by end to end encryption and the messaging app cannot read the texts or see the media files that people send each other.

    The controversial policy was initially expected to come into effect on 8 February but was later deferred to 15 May amid severe backlash from users. The app plans to make it mandatory for users to agree to its new data-sharing norms, a key point of which is allegedly sharing data from WhatsApp business chats with Facebook. 

    On 19 January, the CCI took suo motu cognisance of the potential impact of the policy and terms for WhatsApp’s users and the market. In its statement, WhatsApp had stated that it “remains committed to protecting people’s personal communications with end-to-end encryption and providing transparency about how these new optional business features work.”